B&H Photo

B&H are terrific folks to deal with ... a one-stop shop with respect to tech needs. I bought my 2009 iMac from them and would not hesitate to buy another if I needed it. I've recently purchased some high-end camera equipment from B&H; delivery is always fast and their communication is top-notch.

edit: To remove personally identifying information not relevant to the thread.

Yet another vote for B&H. They are a great company and I do business with them when I can.

I have bought several items over the years for exactly the reasons that you mentioned. However I became a repeat customer because of the great service they provide.

In December I had no hesitation in ordering my new Retina iMac along with AppleCare. It shipped immediately and arrived in perfect condition. As others have noted, AppleCare was already tied to the product when I looked it up on the Apple web site.

I will order either the new MacBook or a 13" MacBook Pro next month, once I can have hands on with the new Macbook to determine its fit for my use. The new machine will come from B&H.

You can't beat price, service and reputation.

edit: To remove personally identifying information not relevant to the thread.

No problems here with B&H Photo. I've shopped in their B&M store in NYC (where I'm from) and have ordered online several times with only one bit of advice, that a few of the items I've had shipped to my home office have arrived a day before they'd indicated - not a bad thing but I'm glad that I was in the office when FedEx arrived...

B&H is number 1 in my book. Those guys have excellent customer service and very good prices. I actually always recommend to people who go to New York to go and at least see the B&H store, its huge and a paradise for people who love tech in general.

Excellent experiences buying from B&H. I highly recommend them.

B&H = No Refunds.

tibas92013 said:

No experience in buying a Mac from B&H Photo, however, I am seriously thinking of purchasing a new Macbook Pro (2014 model) plus Applecare from this company.

Reason: No State Sales Tax and cheaper Applecare price($179vs$249)

Your experiences in dealling with this company would be greatly appreciated.

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B&H is a solid company, as others have mentioned. My only issue with them is that they do not provide refunds for orders on Macs. Meaning, if you buy a Mac and return it, they will only do an exchange and no refund.

This is not really an issue if you know exactly what you want, but I had a situation where I picked up a Mac Mini not knowing about the display "crush" issues. They offered to replace the Mac, but after explaining that the issue was product wide, I was able to convince them that any replacement they sent me would have the same issue. They were nice enough to issue me a full refund, but it was totally out of their norm.

Granted, I'm not the customer most retailers want (I value every dollar I have, and if things aren't 100% the way I expected, the product gets returned). In that case, B&H isn't the best retailer for me.

That all said, I always buy AppleCare from them as they have the best prices around on the warranties.

martinm0 said:

B&H is a solid company, as others have mentioned. My only issue with them is that they do not provide refunds for orders on Macs. Meaning, if you buy a Mac and return it, they will only do an exchange and no refund.

This is not really an issue if you know exactly what you want, but I had a situation where I picked up a Mac Mini not knowing about the display "crush" issues. They offered to replace the Mac, but after explaining that the issue was product wide, I was able to convince them that any replacement they sent me would have the same issue. They were nice enough to issue me a full refund, but it was totally out of their norm.

Granted, I'm not the customer most retailers want (I value every dollar I have, and if things aren't 100% the way I expected, the product gets returned). In that case, B&H isn't the best retailer for me.

That all said, I always buy AppleCare from them as they have the best prices around on the warranties.

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This. Although I love buying stuff from B&H(especially no tax ), the return policy is a bitch. Can't have it all.

tibas92013 said:

Thanx for your reply and why can't you return it to your local Apple Store??

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In general, you can't buy a product from one retailer, return it to another, and receive a refund.

tibas92013 said:

Thanx for your reply and very interesting that you can buy Applecare without buying a MAC.

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Sure you can! You may buy it as a gift for someone else who has a Mac.

edit: To remove personally identifying information not relevant to the thread.

Wife and I have been using B&H for a long time for Apple products and photography stuff. They are one of the better online sellers out there.

dyt1983 said:

He could return it to Apple for a refund, but not to the Apple Store. He may not have been aware. I was under a similar situation with a purchase from B&H, and I found out one day too late that I could have returned it to Apple for a refund.



That is true. But in Apple's case, you can purchase from an authorized retailer, and return it to Apple. Obviously not engraved items.

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Was not aware of this. Thanks!

Also +1 on B&H.

tibas92013 said:

Your experiences in dealling with this company would be greatly appreciated.

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In my experience they are one of the best online retailers in the world.

I have ordered stuff from them before and it has gotten to me in Sydney, Australia in a little over 3 days. Some local retailers have trouble delivering with that sort of efficiency!

Their only quirk is that for international orders they will sometimes ask for scans of your credit card and photo ID to prevent fraud and they are closed on Jewish holidays, but no big deal.

They're a good group. I've only purchased AppleCare from them, but they made the process painless, and there was no trouble with the policy when came time to use it at the Genius Bar.

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SlCKB0Y said:

they are closed on Jewish holidays

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Including Shabbat.

I find it admirable and charming, if a bit inconveniencing.

jmoore5196 said:

B&H are terrific folks to deal with ... a one-stop shop with respect to tech needs. I bought my 2009 iMac from them and would not hesitate to buy another if I needed it. I've recently purchased some high-end camera equipment from B&H; delivery is always fast and their communication is top-notch.

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Thank you. Kind of you to say so and very gratifying.

I too will line up to praise B&H.

But, OP, it seems you're in Costa Rica. Be careful about shipping. For all of B&H's many, many fine qualities, their shipping to addresses not in the continental US can be a serious problem.

I live in Hawai'i, and I've ended up buying items (such as cameras and lenses) from Amazon rather than B&H because of B&H's breathtaking shipping costs to what is, after all, part of the US.

For example, I bought my D810 from Amazon rather than from B&H, even though I wanted to give B&H my business. Why?

If I go to buy a D810 at B&H today, it's listed as having "free expedited shipping," but when I put in my Hawai'i ZIP code, suddenly the least expensive shipping (UPS ground, which means ground to the west coast and then air across the Pacific) is $29, UPS 2 day is $43, USPS Priority Mail is a whopping $67 and FedEx 2 day is $99.

This is nuts -- and so for Costa Rica you're probably going to be looking at something that's even nuttier.

It's a pity because in absolutely every other way, B&H is first-rate.

Nowadays their mail order business looks efficient. However I would never buy from them because of bad experiences with them in the past: exploitative shipping charges, aggressive in-store staff, a refund that never materialized. Sorry to be so humorless. The way they piled on the overseas shipping charges was just disgraceful—and the attitude was very sullen when questioned on it.